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Looking for baking inspiration? Of course you are. I know I am.

Tuesday February 12 is Shrove Tuesday, one of the many obscure religious holidays celebrated in Sweden.
Also known as Semla Day, it seems to only consist of eating semlor (-or is plural of -a), sweet almond cream buns. The Finns add to this crazy Minttu-driven disguised sledding on old household objects (as you may remember from my experiences last year... if not, check out 2012 Feb's post) but the Swedes stick to semla-eating.

*(in case you did go back to check out my post from last Feb, update: Sabrina has now moved to Uppsala. I wasn't kidding when I said she never wanted to leave...)*

The act of putting out one's semlor in bakeries/grocery stores 'too early' seems to be a point of contention for many Swedes... comparable to North Americans' putting out Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. I purchased my Swedish semla in January - but I have an excuse I promise!! - because I obviously wasn't going to be in Sweden Feb 12, and it never occurred to me that I would have a 19-yr-old male classmate who turns out to be a brilliant baker. Takes inspiration from Marcus Samuelsson. I love it. Anyway, last time we had a Scandinavian club 'fika' (remember this means taking coffee, eating something sweet, and having conversation) he made mini semlor! So. Of course now the club must have a fika dedicated to selmor celebration. I have learned that in some regions of Sweden, it is common to eat your semla in a bowl of hot milk. Which is DELICIOUS. But these semla are quite enormous normally and can be hard to finish... so they just get really soggy. Unless you have a vacuum cleaner boyfriend to eat it for you (*ahem*). Off topic...

Over Christmas I watched a solid amount of mostly-unintelligible Svensk TV. One show which was fairly easy to follow, however, was Leila Lindholm's baking show, Leilas Söta Jul (no apostrophe in svenska). So, here is Leilas recept / Leila's recipe for Semlor. A brief warning, this takes about 3h including rising time... not a last-minute snack!

Leilas bakverk - Semlor!

*Makes 18*

DOUGH

1 tbsp cardamom

300 mL milk (about 1 1/4 cup)

50g fresh yeast / 2 tbsp dry

1 1/2 dl sugar (about 2/3 cup)

1/2 tsp salt

150g room temp butter

1 egg

5 cups flour

PASTE

250g almonds (blanched)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup icing sugar

Dash of milk

FILLING/TOPPING

800 mL whipping cream (or a tube of whipped cream)

1 egg (for brushing)

Icing sugar for dusting

Gör så här / "Do it like this":

Warm the milk to about 37 C and dissolve yeast in it.

Mix this with sugar, salt, butter, and egg.

Gradually add flour, and work into a smooth dough.

Proof dough in a bowl under a damp tea towel until doubled, about 45 min to an hour.

Place dough on a floured surface and separate into 18 balls (or however many buns you want)

Place buns on parchment paper lined pans, let rise under towel for another 45 mins to an hour.

ALMOND PASTE

Blend almonds into a fine powder using a blender or food processor.

Add sugar and milk, mix for 5 min. (Or use water… can sit in the fridge longer)

Whip your cream with a bit of icing sugar, place in a piping bag (or a ziplock bag, you can cut off the corner when ready to pipe)

BUNS

Brush buns with beaten egg, and bake at 200 C for 6-7 minutes. Let cool.

Cut off the tops (not halfway!) and scoop out a bit of the inside (set the tops aside, and the insides in a bowl!)

Mix the scooped out insides with your almond paste, and fill in the newly-made holes in the buns.

Pipe your whipped cream on top of the almond paste.

Put the top back on, dust with icing sugar, and voila! Serve cold, or pour hot milk over bun in a bowl.

If you're tired of your boring, everyday semla... Leila suggests trying her delicious chocolate semla (just posted 3 days ago!) Mix 300g roughly chopped chocolate in with the dough before baking, mix some Nutella (or just more chocolate) and rum (crazy lady) in with your almond paste, and dust with cocoa powder for this variation. I am definitely trying this.

Translated from Leilas blogg / Leilas bakverk http://www.leila.se/leilas-semlor/recept/bakverk/index1,23.htm?id=2853